Microbiology and Immunology

I'm not a scientist or medical professional. But I want to understand what is going on with me. I'd deeply appreciate it if someone here would "dumb down" this recent publication in Clinical & Experimental Immunology http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cei.12882/full so that I can understand whether or not there might be some treatment or supplement (e.g. calcium) which might improve my health? (About 10 years ago I developed mono (at the age of 55) which then left me with CFS/ME). I realize that this particular study may not be proven significant or replicable. Or that current medicines or supplements may be ineffective. Thank you.

Hello. I have been doing some reading regarding the benefits of probiotics and am fascinated by it. I have concluded that I should start adding supplements or foods rich in helpful bacteria to my diet. Probiotic supplements are expensive (for me), so the next step is to "cultivate" them at home if possible. I have three questions: How do researchers isolate specific bacteria in order to conduct experiments? Can someone do something similar at home with ordinary "tools"? What ingredients are necessary to produce the various strains of the bacteria Lactobacillus reuteri? Thanks!

Can anyone point me towards a standard (accreditation documents, training/uni text books etc) detailing best practices for minimum recommended incubation times for suspected pathogenic laboratory samples? Thank you

I realize this is a weird question to ask, and yes, I am a bit of a germaphobe. I have a carpet doormat indoors that I walk on when I enter the house. It hasn't been cleaned in 8 months. I only ever walk on it with my shoes on. Today, i walked in and somehow a hair had ended up half on the doormat and half on my wooden floor. Anyway, i ended up "walking" that hair halfway across the house. I am a germaphobe but i have no intention of disinfecting the floors in my house (I've run out of disinfectant now anyway haha!). Seriously, what are the chances that I've spread harmful germs around my house? Nowadays, there are so many articles about how dangerous it is to wear shoes …

If I understand correctly, low doses of most viruses initiate an immune response, which is how vaccines work, I also think I've read somewhere that low doses of some bacteria can help to "train" the immune system to make it more capable of dealing with larger exposures later on. I was wondering if this was true of any other potential causes of disease like carcinogens or poisons, where a very small dose over time actually makes the body more capable of defending against a larger dose later on. With regards to poison, I'm not referring here to the fact that some poisons are good for you in low doses and poisonous in high doses. I'm specifically asking about ways in…

Hello, I'm searching for some articles about te relation between 14-3-3 proteins and cancer, and especially the initiation and progression. The problem is I can't really find any clear articles. Is there someone who can tell me the relation or give me some articles where I can find it? Thanks!

Hello peoples Ive been working on my unknowns for the past couple weeks and ive done my fair of differential medias. Now that I have the data I need to identify my organism im stuck.. I was wondering if anyone has an idea on what this organism might be. THANK YOU Ive included a photo of a gram stain of my organism and the list of what organism it would be. I also listed the results of my medias at the bottom Bacillus cereus * Bacillus circulans * Bacillus megaterium* GRAM POSITIVES Bacillus pumilus* Bacillus subtilis * Enterobacter aerogenes (Aerobacter aerogenes)* Enterobacter cloacae* Escherichia coli* Micrococcus cryophilus Micrococcus luteus (Kocur…

Hello, I am currently trying to grow a bacteria lawn or a spread plate with Bacilllus subtilis. I do not have nutrient broth powder as a liquid medium. So can I use peptone water as a substitute to culture B. subtilis before I spread?

Hello, I have recently tested the air inside my house (3 hours exposition time) for bacteria,yeast/mold. The petri dish for yeast/ mold is a typical one. However, for the bacteria petri, there's a rather large colony growing, wich i suspect of being bacillus mycoides. If any1 can confirm this, or give me a hint on what you think it could be, i would appreciate it very much. (Sorry for the picture quality)

Good Day It came to me, that in the fight against antibiotic resistance, it would help to combat nature with nature. The penicillin mould as Fleming discovered it was an antibiotic, its abilities evident through a simple petri dish culture, but now bacteria have grown resistant. Would it be wise to attempt to grow the penicillin fungus, and then introducing bacteria which are resistant to it, in an effort to drive on natural selection in fungi to make them produce better, new antibiotics? Has this been attempted before? Do you think it would/wouldn't work? I would be delighted in hearing any opinions on this topic. If this has been attempted before and you know …

Hello, I am a high school IB student. For my research paper, I will be testing the effects of different hand sanitizers on Bacillus Subtilis. Here is my problem: I only have a plate culture of the specific B.Subtilis bacteria and I do not have the powder for a liquid nutrient broth. Therefore, how do I create many plates with a lawn culture of b subtilis?

Hi everybody. I’m new here, so maybe this question has been asked before…if so, please point me to the answer. So, my question is: if cell in the body is injured (not by microbe, but physically injured-for example its membrane becomes damaged and cell’s molecules discharge out), the body’s immune system recognizes damaged cell and eliminate it. How the body’s immune system recognizes damaged cell-which molecules it recognizes? Liking ATP, any others? I hope I was clear enough Please help…I need this for my investigations.

I started working in our Micro lab a little over a year ago. One of the 'old-timers' told me about a test she uses to help ID Gardnerella. A thick streak of suspect Gardnerella is inoculated onto chocolate agar, then S. pneumo is streaked down the middle. After overnight CO2 incubation, Gardnerella will be inhibited by the S. pneumo zone of alpha hemolysis. Neither of us has been able to find any references for this test online (after fairly cursory googling). I haven't actually tested other organisms vs pneumococcus, or other alpha streps vs Gardnerella. If anyone has info on what I've been calling the sallytest, I'd appreciate it! inage below is at 48 hr…

Two weeks tomorrow a friend of mine is to undergo a course of radiation therapy. The radiation therapy is fractioned over a five week period, Monday to Friday. 45 Gy is a huge amount of radiation, given that a whole body dose of 5 Gy will lead to death. Does anyone know what the, stochastic health risk, is for this type of treatment ? I need to point out that I am a laymen, I am not asking for medical advice, just hard data. Thank you in advance.

Will the increase in protein levels in the blood plasma be reflected in the increase in protein levels in the aqueous humor?Is it possible to see a significant increase and/or decrease in liver function test molecules if a liver disorder or kidney disease occur, in aqueous solutions in the body produced by active secretion, diffusion, and ultrafiltration from the blood plasma? https://www.researchgate.net/project/Will-the-increase-in-protein-levels-in-the-blood-plasma-be-reflected-in-the-increase-in-protein-levels-in-the-aqueous-humor

what if we don't get sunshine for a long time so that our body cannot generate vitamin D regardless of how much milk fortified with vitamin D we drink quite often, therefore we still get osteoporosis without sunshine ? is it true or false ?

Is it possible to have more than one flu at once, or more than one cold, or a cold and a flu at the same time? The reason I ask is because I came back from traveling recently with what I think is a cold ( although I don't recall ever having a flu in my life). Shortly after, (3 days), my 3 flatmates all got sick with the "flu", and one reckons his daughter previously had one, the other says his mate did. One of them went to the doctor and he said it's the flu. I'm also wondering if "man flu" is real. How does a GP know, apart from the level of complaining? Am I safe or should I quarantine myself from these flu babies? What medical tests are available t…

Can anyone suggest the basic materials required for culturing Neurospora Crassa? Also, please suggest a growth medium apt for Neurospora Crassa

Can anyone please tell me how to activate inactive Neurospora Crassa (Preservation suspending medium :10% glycerol/10% skimmed milk).

I've been dealing with fecal body odor for a couple months now. It started around a period where I had a tooth removed and was given antibiotics flagyl/amoxicillin. I had to stop the flagyl because it was giving me horrible diarrhea. Onset is kind of hazy, not sure if I can totally attribute it to the antibiotics but it was weeks within that time frame. There's a disorder called TMAu that I'm getting tested for, its when the liver enzyme FMO3 isn't fully functioning and therefore can't breakdown choline, instead produces TMAO in large amount and therefore makes you smell bad. Although all the foods that trigger my smell immensely are high in choline, I still smell terribl…

If one can carry a virus for many years and the body doesn’t recognise it, how come when we administer synthetic interferons, which the body already has, the virus can be eliminated? What puzzles me is: how does adding extra interferon improve the recognition abilities of the immune system towards that virus, when it has been languishing for decades in its host, untouched by the effects of the signalling of the host's own natural interferons on his/her immune system? What does it do to the, I’m guessing here, ‘killer’ cells that gives them that ability to recognise the virus? I’m thinking of the hep c virus in particular since interferon-alfa works quite well ag…

I'm curious as to why Leptospirosis is so rare in the UK (under 70 cases a year). It's physiology and mode of transmission do not seem to provide an explanation. It's survival in the environment would imply that any wet surface, puddle or patch of mud that has been visited by any rodent at any time in the past few weeks has at about a 40% chance of being contaminated (using the upper estimate of prevalence in the rodent population). In farmyards and dense urban areas this could well be just about every puddle, patch of mud etc.. The case studies would seem to suggest that low doses are infectious (urine diluted by an entire lakeful of water in America, a single hedgehog p…

Hi: What illnesses [caused by pathogenic microbes] are associated with eating raw Alaskan wild-caught Keta salmon? Thanks, Green Xenon

Is anyone here familiar with the contribution of Henrietta Lacks to immunology, microbiology, chromosome study, and an endless array of other scientific endeavors? Well, it seems that she has provided medical science with the first and only source of immortal, lab grown human cells. Mrs. Lacks tumor cells, extracted during her cervical cancer surgery, have been replicated and continually used in medical research around the world since 1951. This Ted-Ed video link discusses Mrs. Lacks contribution and an array of medical discoveries that would not have been possible without her extraordinary cells. Mrs. Lacks, who was African American, died of cervical cancer in 1951.…

Hello community, I've been trying to find veterinary -or otherwise- studies about the role of food-borne bacteria in nutrient depletion. Apparently the danger exists that bacteria in meat can compete for nutrients in the gut. Also, I would be interested to know more about how bacteria produce toxins after the meat is cooked.